WATCH: Clive Davis Reacts to Whitney Houston Lesbian Rumors

Among the music icon's greatest finds was Whitney Houston, who Clive Davis remembers at length in his new memoir.

BY Lucas Grindley

February 27 2013 4:09 PM ET

Music legend Clive Davis in his new book answers rumors that one of his best known discoveries, Whitney Houston, was secretly a lesbian. He talked about The Soundtrack of My Life during an interview this week with The Grio, saying he "just knew the heterosexual side of Whitney."

"You keep your personal life to a separate side," he explained broadly, and Davis followed that advice himself for a long time. In his book, the 80-year-old Davis came out as bisexual and in a long-term relationship with a man.

Davis said he knew of Houston only dating the likes of Jermaine Jackson, Eddie Murphy and Bobby Brown. And the rumors about Houston being more than best friends with Robyn Crawford never proved true for him.

"I only knew of Robyn as her assistant, someone she grew up with,” Davis said. “I just knew the heterosexual side of Whitney.”

The rumors got added attention recently when Oprah Winfrey interviewed Houston's mother, Cissy, who said "absolutely" it would have bothered her if they were true. The mom is also selling a book, and she was clear that she "wouldn't have liked that" if Houston were a lesbian.

The Daily Beast points out that Cissy Houston remembers meeting Crawford in her memoir. She disapproved of Crawford even before learning she was gay, writing “that had nothing to do with why I didn’t like her.”

“I had a bad feeling about that child from the first time I saw her,” Cissy Houston wrote, according to the Beast. “There was something about the way she carried herself, a kind of arrogance, that I didn’t like. Though she was a pretty girl, in my opinion Robyn wasn’t as bright as Nippy. She also seemed abrasive and unapologetic about that.”

Davis had high praise for his young find. "Whitney Houston was the best singer, without question, in the world."